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Ravello Festival 2012

The Festival this year takes place from 23 June to 1 September, and its overall theme is the highly evocative topic of "Memories". Reappraisal of the past, reflection on the course of history, but also the simple emotion provoked by recollection will, hopefully, lead not just to immediate sensations and moods. Above all our aim is for this to induce a new awareness as we confront one another in a stimulating process of cultural re-appropriation. It should be a never-ending cycle in which renovation is subordinated to the conscious assumption of our roots.The programme drawn up by the Festival's Artistic Director Stefano Valanzuolo features some fifty events. True to the multidisciplinary format perfected over the years, a series of international events will be staged in Villa Rufolo, in the Auditorium Niemeyer, and in the gardens of Ravello's splendid hotels. Naturally the Festival is not going to deprive itself of its musical highlights (from the traditional Wagnerian Concert to the evocative Dawn Concert), but this year special attention is paid to the formative aspect, complementing the numerous musical and ballet performances with a dense series of encounters with writers, journalists, artists and scientists.The Ravello Festival 2012 forms a coherent part of the whole series of activities promoted by the Fondazione Ravello which, starting this year, are scheduled to take place the whole year round.The Festival opens with the Italian début (in conjunction with the Ravenna Festival) of the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan (23 June), the first of a number of appointments Ravello is proposing with symphony orchestras hailing from places that are off the beaten track both geographically and culturally but which have put themselves on the map for the quality of their performances. Thus there is also the visit by the Shenzen Symphony Orchestra (20 July), providing a further opportunity to explore "planet China" following last year's remarkable experience. This year Ravello has asked the Chinese forces to undertake a wholly Wagnerian programme including the alluring "Wesendonck Lieder": a risk, you say? On the contrary, this should prove an exciting challenge.The project involving "The Kinshasa Symphony" (31 August) is a totally new departure. This will be the début in Italy of the extraordinary Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra, formed in the heart of the most poverty-struck Africa thanks to the courage and passion of a group of enthusiasts who developed into full-blown musicians under the aegis of Beethoven and Mozart. "The Kinshasa Symphony" has become a virtuoso phenomenon on the international stage thanks to the documentary made about it by German television, prize winner at the Berlin Film Festival last year. One other significant novelty is the presence of the Palestine Youth Orchestra (2 August), formed in the Edward Said National Conservatory, which will bring to Villa Rufolo a programme including music from its own tradition.The good name of Italian music-making can be confidently entrusted to the Orchestra Rossini di Pesaro, lynchpin of the Rossini Opera Festival, who will perform a suitably auroral programme in the Dawn Concert (10 - 11 August); the Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo (7 July), under the baton of the eclectic and much loved Wayne Marshall. This sophisticated programme straddles the boundary between classical music and jazz, featuring Ravel's La Valse together with Bernstein's West Side Story and the rarely heard "Nutcracker Suite" by Duke Ellington. There is a similar cross-over feel to the concert featuring the trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso alongside the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti (30 June) in a substantial symphonic tribute to Nino Rota.Still on the subject of orchestras, another highlight of this year's Festival takes place on 28 July, when The Artist, the film that carried off five Oscars a few months ago, will be projected with a soundtrack performed live by the Orchestra Italiana del Cinema. On the podium will be Ernst van Tiel, and at the piano Ludovic Bource, the soundtrack's composer who was the recipient of one of the statuettes. This event is a world premiere.These then are the most striking novelties in store in the 2012 Festival. But naturally no international festival can be without its rollcall of famous names. And in fact, in addition to the ones we have already mentioned, there will be the divine Martha Argerich (6 July), guest star alongside the violin prodigy Geza Hosszu-Legochy in an evening of music making with a rather informal atmosphere, combining Gipsy verve and Romantic pathos. Then Ramin Bahrami (13 July), who has established himself as a star of the first magnitude, measuring up to his beloved Bach with the excellent European Union Chamber Orchestra. And we should certainly salute the return to Campania of Canadian Brass (26 August), probably the best brass ensemble in the world.To change register and move to the pop-jazz scene, Ravello Festival remains true to its reputation and has some exclusive treats lined up. For example welcoming a cult band like Pink Martini (14 July), with their glossy and supremely beguiling covers. Or hosting a return visit of that phenomenal musician Jan Garbarek, the Norwegian saxophonist who will be appearing in a quartet (21 July) alongside another authentic superstar, the percussionist Trilok Gurtu.And the Italians? Paolo Fresu and Ludovico Einaudi renew a duo that has only occasionally been seen in the major venues over the years, making this event all the more compelling (3 August). To be followed by another original duo: Gino Paoli and Danilo Rea (17 August) in an evening that, keeping up one of the Festival's more recent traditions, renders homage to the Neapolitan song. Then there is another personal tribute, delivered by Peppe Servillo for the delight of the many fans of Adriano Celentano. The evening is entitled "Memorie di Adriano" (9 August) and will see a line up of great jazzmen and women (Marcotulli, Girotto, Bosso, Di Castri). In an exclusive production Ron will perform an autobiographical medley including affectionate renderings of the greatest hits of Lucio Dalla (12 August). And finally Elio will appear in the unusual role of soloist with Roberto Prosseda as his accomplice at the piano (1 September).Top quality ballet alights in the Festival with three international spectacles. It will be an honour to host the brilliant étoile Eleonora Abbagnato in a gala performance on 4 August, with a programme involving music ranging from Vasco Rossi to Mozart and both classical and contemporary choreographies. On 18 August Ravello welcomes back the stars of the legendary New York City Ballet for a tribute to George Balanchine, who made such a major contribution to the company's lineage. And thirdly a true novelty: the Israeli company Dafi Altabeb (29 June) take the stage in a display devoted to the world of opera.And this still leaves plenty of events deserving a mention: from the entertaining tribute to James Bond (5 August) in music and film, marking 50 years since the first of the secret agent's exploits, to the return of a vocal group who really are unique, Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares (24 August).This year rather less prominence is given to chamber music, since this constitutes the lion's share of the new all-year-round programming in the Auditorium Niemeyer. We should nonetheless draw attention to concerts by the up and coming young pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell, by the duo for piano and cello of Bruno Canino and Vittorio Ceccanti, followed by the violinist Domenico Nordio and pianist Andrea Bacchetti, and by the Quartetto del San Carlo in its new formation, without omitting the homage to Sigismund Thalberg in the bicentenary of his birth.The section of the Festival dedicated to the Visual Arts hosts Igor Mitoraj (23 June) who will add a selection of his paintings (Cappella di Villa Rufolo) to the sculptures that are already in situ in the streets and squares of Ravello. This exhibition of works by Mitoraj, entitled "Memoriae", has been made possible by the precious collaboration of the Galleria d'Arte Contini.The section will also feature Video Medium Intermedium, an exhibition of art videos from the 1970s curated by Bice Curiger for the Venice Biennale on view in Villa Rufolo for the whole of the Festival. Autostrade per l'Italia and ENI, both prestige partners of the Ravello Festival, will each mount a retrospective presenting the history of their respective companies. And during the month of August we welcome the Portuguese artist Manuel Cargaleiro, who exhibits his extraordinary ceramic ware.And then there are many events in which words are the protagonists: the appointments with the sciences are curated by Città della Scienza and will include an event featuring the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, which the Fondazione Ravello is pleased to support. Well known figures invited to speak include the philosopher Giulio Giorello, the journalist and opera lover Alberto Mattioli, the former world champion Paolo Rossi (aka Pablito), the archeostar Valerio Massimo Manfredi and several others whose presence is still being confirmed.In a difficult year the Ravello Festival launches its cultural challenge once again, aiming higher than ever before, relying on the originality of its contents and the international prestige of its rollcall. Naturally all this is made possible by the remarkable commitment shown by its many sponsors, both public and private. These sponsors are at its side because they share in the project, setting up a synergy that is sure to go from strength to strength in the years to come